Set aside a handful (about 50g) of the pitted cherries. Place the remainder in a large pan set over a medium heat with the cream and 50g icing sugar. Bring up to the boil, then gently simmer for 5 mins until the cherries start to soften. Carefully whizz in a blender, then pass through a sieve.

Pour a little of the hot cherry cream over the egg yolks, whisk well, then pour back into the pan. Cook for about 5 mins more or until the mixture has thickened a little and will coat the back of a wooden spoon. Pour through a sieve into a bowl, cover the surface with cling film, then leave to cool completely.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then whisk in the remaining 50g sugar, 1 tbsp at a time. Keep whisking until the mixture is stiff and resembles shaving foam. Stir a third of the mixture into the cooled cream, mix until it is well incorporated, then gently fold through the remaining mixture in 2 goes.

Line a 900g loaf tin with cling film. Pour the mixture into the tin, then cover with cling film and place in the freezer for about 3 hrs until just starting to freeze. Stir the whole cherries into the semi-frozen mixture, then return to the freezer for at least 8 hrs or preferably overnight. Serve cut into slices with some berries, or sandwiched between wafers.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Unilever has hired Whybin TBWA to work across its multimillion dollar ice cream account without a pitch.Whybin has been appointed on a project-by-project basis, with the possibility of becoming a retained agency. The agency begins work immediately on the Magnum, Cornetto and Splice brands.

Unilever ice creams sweet on Whybin TBWAWhybin TBWA Group Sydney chief executive Paul Bradbury said: "We have enormous respect for Unilever and their portfolio of Australia’s best loved brands. We look forward to achieving great things working with their marketing and agency teams."

Unilever adopts a two-part marketing approach, in which it splits "regional brand development" and "local brand building". Whybin has been appointed to the local brand building element of the Unilever ice cream account.

Lowe handles the regional brand development portion of the account, however this is through a regional and global alignment. While this alignment involves Lowe Sydney, it is unclear just how much direct involvement the agency has on the ice cream account, because a lot of the regional brand development work comes into Australia from other markets.

Apart from Lowe and Whybin, the Unilever ice cream account works with digital agency Soap, which also handles other Unilever categories, and Mindshare, which handles media planning and buying for the entire Unilever business.

The appointment was predominantly overseen by VP of marketing for Australasia Peter Boone. Since his arrival at Unilever at the end of last year, Boone has been developing a number of agency relationships. He appointed Mindshare as Unilever’s media agency earlier in the year, and has also started working on a project basis with Droga5 on the Lynx brand.

Unilever estimated main media spend in the 12 months to June 2011 was $70.7 million, down from $81.8 million in the prior period, according to Nielsen. The company spent $6.4 million and $1.1 million on the Streets Magnum Ice Cream and Cornetto brands respectively in the year to June 2011, while spending nothing on the Splice brand.